Sunday vigil will mark 4th anniversary of woman reported missing from Yakama Reservation

TOPPENISH — A gathering Sunday at Pioneer Park will mark four years since the family of Rosenda Sophia Strong reported her missing. It also will honor other missing and murdered Indigenous people on and beyond the Yakama Reservation.

The public event will begin at 6 p.m. at the park on South Elm Street at West Second Avenue. Strong’s sister, Cissy Strong Reyes, organized it to remember her sister, a mother of four who disappeared after getting a ride to Legends Casino just a few miles from her sister’s home, where she was staying.

Strong’s remains were found in an abandoned freezer at mile post 64 on U.S. Highway 97 on July 4, 2019. Anyone with information is asked to call the Yakama Nation Police Department at 509-865-2933 or the FBI at 509-990-0857 regarding case number 18-010803.

In September 2021, federal investigators released Strong’s remains to her family, who held a memorial service in Toppenish late that month. Strong was buried near their mother on the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon.

Strong is among dozens of missing and murdered Native women, girls, men and boys on and beyond the 1.3-million-acre Yakama Nation reservation. Many cases are unsolved.

Reyes plans to speak about her sister and release a floating luminary for her. Family and friends of other missing and murdered Indigenous women and people are welcome to do the same, Reyes said.

“Please come out and send off a lantern … for those who are still missing and still need justice,” she wrote in the event post she shared on Facebook.